Top Cooking Classes

As we're starting a new year and thinking about goals, I like to take a look back. I LOVE taking cooking classes. I usually go with a friend, so it's great to hang out, learn new skills, eat delicious food, and not have to do any dishes!

It like to reflect on what works, what y'all like to read, and celebrate what happened last year. Here are the top 10 cooking classes that you love.

Italian Cooking Class

On the menu: spinach and ricotta gnudi, steak and peppers, and teaches with cookies and cream for dessert

Mediterranean Cooking Class

On the menu: Greek meatballs, roasted cauliflower, and shrimp with chermoula sauce, and taziki sauce. You can get my taziki sauce recipe here.

Vietnamese Street Food Cooking Class

On the menu: shrimp banh mi, sausage rolls with nuoc cham dipping sauce, and Vietnamese coffee ice cream

Cooking Class Pasta 

On the menu: pappardelle with caramelized onion, sweet peas and prosciutto 

and ravioli al uvo with a brown butter sauce

Also, check out the post for tons of tips on making homemade pasta.

Cooking Class Series: Part 1

On the menu: vegetable ratatouille, pan-roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary, 

and vanilla bean shuffle with strawberry sauce

Cooking Class Series: Part 2

On the menu: pea, prosciutto, and Parmesan risotto, blanched green beans 

with Dijon vinaigrette  pan-seared scallops with a citrus-thyme gastric, 

and a blackberry crostata with homemade whipped cream

Cooking Class Series: Part 3

On the menu: marinated steak with green olive tapenade, spaghetti carbonara, 

tomato and goat cheese grilled goat breads, and vanilla bean pan cotta, 

Seafood Cooking Class

On the menu: lobster roll, coleslaw with remoulade dressing, 

crab cakes with Old Bay aioli, and strawberry shortcake

I also took a couple dessert classes. One, where I learned about decorating cookies. And, the other, I learned about decorating cakes.  

Cookie Decorating Class

We learned about making royal icing and a few tips and techniques for decorating cookies.

Cake Decorating Class

We learned about leveling, filling and frosting cakes. And, we got to take a cake home!

For more tips, encouragement, and recipes for a healthy lifestyle, you can follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

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Holiday Trader Joe's Haul

I recently went to Trader Joe's and picked up a few bits and pieces to try for the holiday. Here are a few things I encourage you to try. There are some quick party bites, stocking stuffers, and hostess ideas.

Let's start with the chocolate babka. If you haven't had babka, I would describe it as a chocolate cinnamon roll in the for of bread without the cinnamon. It was moist, rich and super chocolatey. At $4.99, it would be great hostess gift or a great addition to a dessert table. I'm looking forward to getting this babka again.

For a little something salty and sweet, try the popcorn trio. It is a mix of chocolate almond, macadamia caramel, and pecan praline. Yum! This is perfect for all your friends that are gluten free. At $6.99, it's a great stocking stuffer, hostess gift or addition to a dessert table. 

The first time I tried sipping chocolate was at Disney's Wine and Food Festival. It's a super rich, thick hot chocolate. Super delicious!  At $3.99, this would be a great hostess gift or stocking stuffer for your favorite foodie.

This soap was a recommendation from one of my friends. This white pine soap and lotion smell like freshly cut Christmas trees. Super festive! I love that it comes with the little metal caddy too. At $5.99, it's another great hostess gift. 

The holiday pfeffernusse cookies were not a family favorite. They were a little too spiced for our liking. I'll pass on them next year ,and try something new. But don't worry, I have a great festive, Christmas cookie on the way. Stay tuned!

For more tips, encouragement, and recipes for a healthy lifestyle, you can follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

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Chicken and Turkey Sausage Gumbo

The weather is finally chilly, which means soup weather! Today, we're making one of my favorite soups. Since I'm from Louisiana, it's gumbo.

There are a variety of gumbos. All have similarities. They all start with a roux, which is a mixture of butter and flour cooked until dark. The Cajun cooking trinity of bell pepper, onion, and celery are included in the aromatics. My favorite gumbo has chicken, turkey sausage, and okra.

Here's the recipe for my chicken and sausage gumbo.

Ingredients
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 bell pepper, medium dice (1 cup)
4 celery stalks, medium slices (1 cup)
1 small onion, medium dice (1 cup)
6 cups (48 ounces) of low sodium chicken stock
1 1/2 cup teaspoons Creole Seasoning (I like Tony Chachere seasoning.)
1/4 teaspoons black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon red pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded
1 pound turkey sausage, cut into half-moon slices
12 ounces frozen okra
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce (to taste)

Instructions
Place butter in a large Dutch oven or pot. Heat over medium to low-medium heat. Brown butter white stirring. This browns the butter fat and makes a quicker roux. 

Gradually add the flour while whisking. Continue to cook until the roux is the color of a copper penny. This should take 20-30 minutes.

Add bell pepper, onion, and celery. Cook for 5 minutes while staring. Gradually add chicken stock while stirring to prevent lumps. 

Add all remains ingredients except chicken, sausage, okra, salt and hot sauce. Cook 30 minutes with lid off. Bring to a boil. Then, reduce to simmer.

Add chicken, sausage, and okra. Cook 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Adjust salt and heat as needed.

I like to serve gumbo with cornbread and rice.

Have you every tried gumbo? If so, what's your favorite type?

For more tips, encouragement, and recipes for a healthy lifestyle, you can follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

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EPCOT Food And Wine Festival

It's fall which means Food and Wine Festival in EPCOT. I visited Disney World recently and wanted to share the foods I loved and my recommendations for must-try dishes.

If you haven't been to Disney's Food and Wine Festival, it is in EPCOT. There are food booths located around EPCOT's Future World and World Showcase. Future world is near the main park entrance. World Showcase is around World Showcase Lagoon, which features all of the different countries. It's a beautiful park to walk, shop, and eat!

Of note, EPCOT typically opens at 9 AM. However, most of the countries in World Showcase do not open until 11 AM. One exception is Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe in Norway, which is open for breakfast. The booths for Food and Wine Festival are not open until 11 AM. Also, the booths closed at normal park closing even when there were extra magic hours at EPCOT.

Here's what we ate!

Almond Orchard

We had the hot spinach and artichoke dip with chicken - yummy! Not pictured: We had the the Almond Breeze strawberry smoothie - twice. This was my husband's favorite. It was cool, creamy, fruity and refreshing. It was in the 90s when we visit, so this was the best refresher!

Australia

This was another one of my top pics - the lamb chop from Australia. It was so good, it was gone before I got a picture. It's one lamb chop with mint pesto and potato chip crumbles. I love it! But I would pass on the potato chips. This was one of my favorite bites!

Chocolate Experience

Tip: you can get free chocolate squares from this shop! We tried the drinking chocolate. It was the richest hot chocolate I've ever had.

Earth Eats

We had the steakhouse blended burger and the impossible burger. Both sliders were super tasty. I loved the the steakhouse burger and my husband loved the impossible burger. The steakhouse burger had beef, mushrooms, fire, arugula and a truffle potato chip on a brioche bun. Come on; how could that not be good?!? The impossible burger was a vegetarian burger packed with flavor and topped with a wasabi cream and spicy Asian slaw on a. sesame seed bun. Great sliders!

Flavors from Fire

I had the shared chimichurri skirt steak. It was a tender, juicy,  flavorful steak. It was served on a smoked corn cake with a pickled vegetable slaw and cilantro aioli. I love the aioli. The corn cake had great smoke flavor but was dry. It definitely needed the aioli and slaw for moisture. Overall, it was a great steak and a good bite.

Greece

We enjoyed the Greek food as my husband is part Greek. The spanakopita was fantastic - second only to my mother-in-law's recipe. The taste of Greece was a great sample plate filled with chicken souvlaki, feta cheese dip with warm pita, and lamb sausage with a dill tomato ragu. All were great! 

Hops and Barley

We tried the carrot cake from Hops and Barley. It was more like a spice muffin with a cream cheese glaze, but either way it was a yummy sweet bite. I mean, look at that glaze!

India

We had the bread and trio of dips from India. It had warm pita slices, coriander pesto, pickled garlic, and mango salsa. All of the dips were good. I couldn't pick a favorite dip; all of them were so delicious. The mango salsa was sweet with a kick of jalapeño at the end. The pickled garlic was packed with pungent garlic flavor. The coriander pesto was the one I found myself dipping again and again and mixing with the other dips. So good! 

If you like this dish, you should get the bread service at Sanaa in Disney. It's a bread service with 9 dips and 5 types of flatbread; super packed with flavor. 

Japan

I had the teriyaki bun from Japan. It was a super, soft bun that reminded of a bao bun. The inside was full of teriyaki meat and vegetable filling. It was a great bite!

Light Lab

This was a really cool location. It was dark with black lights and lots of science-experiment theming. My husband got the phosphorescent phlight, which was a trio of slushes. They aren't labeled with flavors. You guess the flavors and get a card and decoder to reveal the flavors. It's a super fun, interactive experience! He also had the InfarRED, which involved some melting cotton candy. Such a fun location!

Morocco
We also tried the hummus fries from the Morocco booth. I would describe it as fried hummus squares, with a cucumber and tomato salad and sauce. I was expecting French fries with hummus and toppings.. They were ok, not my favorite bite. If you want to try them, they are also served at the Spice Road restaurant in World Showcase.

Taste Track 


This booth is located near Test Track in Future World. We had the chocolate marshmallow croissant donut or cronut. My husband liked it; I thought the cronut was dry. Next time, I'd like to try the cinnamon sugar croissant donut. 

Wine and Dine Studio

I got the butternut squash ravioli. Y'all, this was so good! The butternut squash ravioli was perfectly al dente toped with browned butter, parmesan cheese, pumpkin seeds and balsamic vinaigrette. This was possibly my favorite dish. It was so good I got it twice! And, I tried to recreate it at home. 

Top Bites

My husband's top picks: Almond Breeze strawberry smoothie from Almond Orchard, the phosprescent phlight from Light Lab, and bread and trio of dips from India

My top picks: lamb chop with chimichurri from Australia and Butternut squash ravioli from Wine and Dine Studio and the Greek sample plate with chicken souvlaki, feta cheese dip with warm pita, and lamb sausage with a dill tomato ragu.

If you have a chance to visit Disney World during EPCOT's Food and Wine Fest, I would highly recommend it. It's a great way to try new dishes and flavors from around the world. The small plates are often dishes that are served in different restaurants from around the park, so it's a less expensive way to try dishes. I loved that I could try so many different dishes. I love trying new foods! 

I want to hear from you! Have you been to EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival? What were your top picks or favorite booth. Please comment below or on social media. 


For more tips, encouragement, and recipes for a healthy lifestyle, you can follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. 

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